IOM Helps Over 3,200 African Migrants Stranded In Yemen Return Home

In a recent announcement, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said so far in 2023, it has helped over 3,200 African migrants stranded in war-torn Yemen to safely return to their home countries.

According to a statement posted on the agency’s Twitter account, the IOM’s Voluntary Humanitarian Return Programme facilitated the return of the migrants, including 254 unaccompanied children, to their home countries.

The migrants, onboard flights, departed from Aden, Seiyun, and the capital Sanaa, Xinhua News Agency quoted the IOM as saying. The UN agency is responsible for providing services and advice concerning migration to governments, and migrant workers, refugees and internally displaced people, among others.

Despite years of brutal clashes and an eventual humanitarian crisis, Yemen continues to be a prominent transit country for scores of migrants heading for Saudi Arabia from the Horn of Africa. The long civil war erupted in late 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of several provinces in the north and forced the internationally-recognised Saudi-backed government out of Sanaa.

The IOM has called for additional financial support to help roughly 200,000 migrants from Africa still stranded in Yemen to safely return to their home countries. Around 43,000 of the migrants are in urgent need of assistance.